High School Textbooks to Take Up Various Aspects of Generative AI

Tokyo, March 24 (Jiji Press)--Various aspects of generative artificial intelligence are set to be taken up in Japanese high school textbooks that will be used from fiscal 2027.

The education ministry said Tuesday that a total of 220 textbooks for 11 subjects mainly to be used by high school second and third graders from the fiscal year starting in April 2027 have passed its second round of screenings conducted under the current curriculum guidelines.

Four textbooks failed as they were deemed as inappropriate for grave defects in how they are composed.

Many textbooks for information, civics, fine arts and the Japanese language have descriptions about generative AI, including on how the system learns and generates texts, images and other data, and how to use it, as well as issues such as misinformation and disinformation, and copyright infringement.

The number of opinions given in the screening process totaled 4,300, down by 3,509 from the previous screening in fiscal 2021. The decrease came as many publishers basically maintained the compositions of their textbooks.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]